India’s 4 state-owned firms plan to build coal-to-chemical projects as part of the government’s aim of utilizing 100 million tonnes per year of coal for gasification by 2030.
Coal India Limited (CIL) will be joining hands with three other major PSUs – Bharat Heavy Electricals Limited (BHEL), Indian Oil Corporation Limited (IOCL) and GAIL (India) for setting up four SCG projects.
The projects will “convert coal into syngas that can be subsequently processed for downstream production of value-added chemicals which are produced through imported natural gas or crude oil”, the company said in a statement.
The companies plan to produce dimethyl ether (DME), ammonium nitrate and synthetic natural gas through these projects, the ministry said.
Details on exact location, cost and capacities of the proposed projects were not disclosed in the recent announcement.
The coal gasification project will happen in three phases, according to the Ministry of Coal’s National Coal Gasification Mission report released in September 2021, which specified timelines for start and completion of each phase.
In the first phase of the project which covers 2020-2024, a total of 4 million tonnes per year of coal will be gasified and will involve an investment of around Rs 200 billion.
This phase included building a 1.27 million tonnes per year urea plant based on coal gasification technology and will be operated by Talcher Fertilizer Ltd. The plant is expected to become operational in the fiscal year ending March 2025.
CIL is also setting up a 676,000 tonnes per year methanol plant at the Dankuni Coal Complex (DCC), in West Bengal state as part of the first phase.
Once operational, the plant is expected to help India achieve its aim of providing 15% methanol-blended fuel thereby reducing crude imports by 2030.
The planned four coal-to-chemicals projects, for which pre-feasibility studies have been completed, represent the second phase of India’s national coal gasification project, CIL stated in its 2021-22 annual report.
The second phase (2020-2024) will involve gasification of 6 million tonnes per year of coal which is expected to require an investment of Rs 300 billion.
These plants will be located near the mine heads of Eastern Coalfields Ltd (ECL), South Eastern Coalfields Ltd (SECL) and Western Coalfields Ltd (WCL), CIL and the coal ministry noted
“After successfully setting up technology in Phase II, more projects shall be identified,” according to the ministry document, noting that the third phase (2022-2030), 90 milllion tonnes of coal will be gasified and will require an investment of Rs 3.6 trillion, it added.